Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 February 2026
196. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether he will introduce legislation strengthening the powers of the Ombudsman in relation to visa, citizenship and international protection applications (details supplied). [8870/26]
View answerThe Ombudsman's role is to examine complaints from members of the public who believe that they have been unfairly treated by certain public service providers including government departments, local authorities, the Health Service Executive (HSE), agencies such as charities and voluntary bodies that deliver health and social services on behalf of the HSE, public hospitals, publicly funded third-level education bodies, and public and private nursing homes.
The current Programme for Government does not include an extension of the Ombudsman's remit to complaints about decisions relating to immigration, naturalisation, citizenship, asylum, family reunification, residency or visas. Outside of any appeals or judicial review process relevant to those matters, complaints are typically handled in line with the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration's Customer Complaints Procedure (Link: Justice Customer Complaints Procedure).
For those living in the Direct Provision system, the Ombudsman can examine complaints about certain actions of accommodation centres and the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) if a complaint has already been made by the manager of the Accommodation Centre in the first instance, and IPAS thereafter.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
